Two-terminal sine wave oscillator



PMN-W E. EBERHARD 2,675,474

TWO-TERMINAL SINE WAVE OSCILLATOR April 13, 1954 Filed May 14, 1949 Fig l0. j

ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 13, 1954 UNITED s'mrs OFFICE Radio Corporation of of Delaware America, a corporation Application May 14, 1949, Serial No. 93,303

(Cl. Z50-36) 10 Claims. 1

This invention relates generally to oscillators, and particularly relates to two-terminal sine wave oscillators including a three-electrode semi-conductor device.

The three-electrode semi-conductor is a recent development in the eld of electronic amplication. This device is presently known as a transistor, and its essential characteristics have been disclosed in a series of three letters to the Physical Review by Bardeen and Brattain, Brattain and Bardeen, and Shockley and Pearson which appeared on pages 230 to 233 of the July 15, 1948, issue. The new amplifier device includes a block of semi-conducting material such as silicon or germanium which is provided on one of its surfaces with two closely adjacent point electrodes which are called emitter and collector electrodes and with a third electrode, called the base electrode, providing a large-area lowresistance contact with another surface of the semi-conductor block. The input circuit of the ampliiier described in the letters referred to above is connected between the emitter and the base electrodes while the output circuit is connected between the collector and the base electrodes. In this circuit the base electrode is the common input and-output electrode and may, therefore, be grounded.

lIt has also been pointed out in the publications referred to that a three-electrode semiconduc tor device can be arranged as an oscillator. Such an oscillator having an external feedback path has been disclosed in Radio Craft of September 1948 on pages 24 to 25 and by C. E. Atkins in Radio and Television News of October 1948 in b a paper beginning on pa'geBQ (see pages 182-183) `ln"accordancewith the present invention a sine wave oscillator is providedwhich makes use oi the negative resistance of a semi-conductor device which exists under certain operating cone ditions. Accordingly, thesine wave oscillator of the present invention does not require an external 4feedback path.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide novel sine wave oscillators incorporating a three-electrode semi-conductor device.

A further object of the invention is to provide an oscillator of the semi-conductor type which may be triggered, for example, by a trigger pulse and which may be frequency modulated.

Another object of the invention is to provide a -sine wave-oscillator of the semi-conductor type ci simple construction where the frequency of Athe sinusoidal outputwaye may be Stabilized,

A sine wave oscillator in accordance with the present invention comprises a semi-conducting body provided with a base electrode, an emitter electrode and a collector electrode. The base electrode has a relatively large, low-resistance, non-rectiiying contact with the semi-conducting body while the collector and emitter electrodes have relatively small, high-resistance, rectifying contacts with the semi-conducting body. Normally, a reverse bias is applied between the collector and base electrodes and a forward bias is applied between the emitter and base electrodes by a suitable source of potential.

In accordance with the present invention a series-resonant circuit is connected to one of the rectifying electrodes. In other words, the seriesresonant circuit may be connected between the emitter electrode and ground or between the collector electrodes and ground or, alternatively, between the emitter and collector electrodes. Furthermore, an impedance element is connected between the bas-e electrode and ground. This impedance element may consist of a parallelresonant circuit in the manner disclosed and claimed in applicants copending application (RCA-31,257) Serial No. 73,352, iiled on January 28, 1949, entitled Sine Wave Oscillators and assigned to the assignee of this application. The sine wave oscillator of the present invention .will oscillate by virtue of the negative resistance .of the semi-conductor device which exists under predetermined operating conditions.

It is also feasible to provide such a bias voltage between the emitter and base electrodes that the oscillator'will be normally quiescent. in this case, the oscillator may be caused to oscillate by applying, for example, a trigger pulse of predetermined polarity to one of its electrodes whereby the oscillator is brought into the oscillating region of its characteristics. This type of oscillator will oscillate for the duration of each trigger pulse.

The novel features that are considered char-- acteristic of this invention are set forth with particularly in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organizae tion and method of operation, as well as additional objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a circuit diagram of a semi-conn ductor amplifier provided with external iznped-vi ance elements which will be referred to in ex plaining the operation of the sine wave oscillator of the invention;

Figure 2 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the amplifier of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a circuit diagram of a two-terminal oscillator embodying the present invention and having a series-resonant circuit connected to the emitter electrode;

Figure 4 is a graph illustrating the variation of the frequency of the output wave obtained from the oscillator of Figure 3 with a change of the emitter or of the collector Voltage;

Figure 5 is a circuit diagram of a sine wave oscillator in accordance with the invention having a series-resonant circuit connected to the collector electrode;

Figure 6 is a circuit diagram of a sine wave oscillator of the invention having a series-resonant circuit connected between the emitter and collector electrodes;

Figure '.7 is a circuit diagram of a triggered sine wave oscillator in accordance with the invention;

Figure 8 is a graph illustrating the variation with the emitter voltage of the resistance looking into the base electrode of the circuit of Figure l;

Figure 9 is a circuit diagram of a modified sine wave oscillator embodying the invention which may be used as a harmonic generator; and

Figure 10 is a circuit diagram of a sine wave oscillator in accordance with the invention provided with three resonant circuits and suitable as a harmonic generator.

Referring now to the drawing, in which like components have been designated by the same reference numerals throughout the figures, and particularly to Figure 1, there is illustrated a semi-conductor amplifier. The amplifier comprises body I2 of semi-conducting material which may consist, for example, of boron, silicon, germanium, tellurium or selenium containing a small but suflicient number of atomic impurity centers or lattice imperfections as commonly employed for best results in crystal rectiers. Germanium is the preferred material for body I2 and may be prepared so as to an electronic N type semiconductor, as is well known. The surface of semiconducting body I2 may be polished and etched in the manner explained in the paper by Bardeen and Brattan referred to. It is also feasible to utilize the germanium block from a commercial high-back-voltage germanium rectier such as the type 1N44 in which case further surface treatment may not be required.

Semi-conducting body I 2 is provided with emitter electrode I3, collector electrode I @l and base electrode I 5, Emitter electrode I3 and collector electrode I4 are small-area, rectifying electrodes and may be point contacts consisting, for example, of tungsten or Phosphor bronze wires having a diameter of the order of 2 to 5 mils. Emitter and collector electrodes I3, I4 are ordinarily placed closely adjacent to each other either on the same surface of body I2 or on opposite surfaces thereof in which case they maybe separated by a distance of from 2 to 5 mils. Base electrode I5 provides a large-area, low-resistance, non-rectifying contact with the bulk material of semi-conducting body I2.

Separate resistors are provided in the leads of each of the three electrodes. Thus, base resistor r1 is arranged between base electrode I5 and ground. Collector resistor n. is provided between collector electrode I 4 and battery I6 while emitter resistor Te' is connected between emitter electrode I3 and battery I1. Battery I 6 is provided between ground and collector electrode I4 for the purpose of applying a relatively large reverse bias between collector electrode I4 and base electrode I5. Battery I1 connected between ground and emitter electrode I3 applies normally a small forward bias between emitter electrode I3 and base electrode I5. It is believed that the operation of the circuit of Figure l is sufficiently well understood so as not to require further explanation here. For further explanatory material regarding the operation of a semi-conductor amplifier, reference is madeY to the recent paper by Webster, Eberhard and Barton which appears on pages 5 tov 16 of the March 1949 issue of RCA Review.

Figure 2 illustrates an alternating-current equivalent circuit of the amplifier of Figure 1, thev equivalent circuit being described on page 9 (Figure 4) of the paper by Webster, Eberhard and Barton referred to;vn In the circuit of Figure 2, dotted box I2 indicates semi-conducting body I2 which may be considered as including resistor rb which appears looking into base electrode I5, resistor re appearing looking into emitter electrode I3 and resistor rc which appears looking into collector electrode I4. In series with resistors rc and TL there is provided an impedancelessgenerator labeled rmiz, where i1 is the current flowing into the emitter electrode as indicated in Figure 2.

A mathematical analysis of the circuits of Figures 1 and 2 shows that oscillations will occur when the following condition is met:

Where TEzre-I-re'. The remaining symbols-i occurring in the above formula have all-been indicated in Figures l and 2. Thus, rb, rm and rc are constants of the semi-conductor device enclosed within box I2 of Figure 2. These quantities may be considered as constants which, however, may be varied byselection of the operating conditions of the device; For the following analysis, however, it will be assumed that these quantities are true constants which cannot be varied, On the otherl hand, rE, 1'i and TL are external resistors or include suchY resistors and therefore their values can be chosen at will. Normally, the right hand side of the above equation will be smaller than rE and sometimes it will actually be negative, and in eithery case no oscillation occurs.

Now let us consider conditions when the circuit is near oscillation. Here the quantity must be slightly greater than unity l. If this is the case, it is clear that oscillation may be produced in several ways'. First, it is feasible to increase the value of rx (case A), second, to de'- crease rE (case B) and finally to decrease TL (case C). Any one of these changes may fulll the oscillation condition set forth in the above formula. In order to increase n at' some particular or desired frequency i-t isfeasible to connect a parallel-resonant circuit between base electrode I5 and ground. Such a circuit will operate as a sine wave oscillator and has been disclosed and claimed in appli'cants copending application above-referred to and described on page 14 (Figure 10) of the publication in RCA Review previ'ously referred to.

In accordance with the presentinvention either TE (case B) or rL (case C) isdecreased at.' some particular frequency bycomrectmg'- ai series-reg.

onant circuit either between emitter electrode I3 and ground or between collector electrode I5 and ground. As is well known, the impedance of a series-resonant circuit at its resonant frequency becomes zero provided the circuit does not have any resistance. A sine wave oscillator in accordance with case B has been illustrated in Figure 3.

Thus, in accordance with the present invention, series-resonant circuit 2t consisting of capacitor 2I and inductor 22 is connected between emitter electrode I3 and ground. Resistor 23 is connected between base electrode i5 and ground. Battery I6 is connected in series with resistor 2d between ground and collector electrode le to provide a large reverse bias between collector electrode I5 and base electrode I5. The small forward bias Which is normally provided between emitter electrode I3 and base electrode l5, preferably is obtained from variable tap on battery i6 which is connected to emitter electrode I3 through resistor 26. Battery it may be bypassed to ground by bypass capacitor 2l and bypass capacitor 28 may be provided between tap 25 and ground. The resistance of resistor 26 preferably should be high so that'series-resonant circuit 20 provides the only low impedance path between emitter electrode I3 and ground.

The oscillator of Figure 3 will oscillate at a frequency determined by the resonant frequency of series-resonant circuit 20. However, as will be terminals 32 effectively connected across collector resistor 25. A blocking capacitor 33 may be provided between collector electrode iii and one of the output terminals 32.

By way of example, resistors 23, 2li and 25 may each have a resistance of 10,000 ohms. If the capacitance of capacitor 2i is 820 micromicrofarads and the inductance of inductor 22 is 595 microhenries, the oscillator has been found to oscillate at the frequency of 150 liilocycles (kc). The resonant frequency of series-resonant circuit 25 is 223 kc. The steady collector current was 2.3 milliamperes (ma.) while the steady emitter current was .33 ma. The collector bias voltage was -53 volts, the base bias voltage 20 volts and the emitter voltage supply was slightly above the base voltage with respect to ground.

It has been found that the frequency of oscillation is a function of the emitter voltage Ee and of the collector voltage Ec taken with respect to the base voltage as indicated in Figure 1. Thus, curve 35 of Figure l indicates the variation of the frequency of the output wave of the oscillator of Figure 3 when En is varied while Ee is maintained constant. Curve 36 illustrates the frequency variation of the output wave when Ee is varied while E@ is maintained constant. It will be noticed that curves 35 and S5 go in opposite directions when the emitter and collector voltage is varied in the same sense. Accordingly, in order to stabilize the frequency of the output wave of the oscillator Aof Figure 3 both bias voltages for emitter electrode I3 and collector electrode iii preferably are derived from the same battery i5 as shown. With this arrangement, the frequency of the output wave can be made substantially independent from variations of the bias voltage.

The sine wave oscillator of Figure 5 .represents case C, that is, where rL is decreased. To this end series-resonant circuit 40 consisting of capacitor 4I and inductor 42 is connected between collector electrode I 4 and ground. Otherwise, the oscillator of Figure 5 is similar to that of Figure 3. For the saire of convenience, two bias batteries i6 and Il have been shown for applying the required bias voltages to collector electrode ill and to emitter electrode i3. However, as pointed out before, a single battery may be provided for this purpose which will stabilize the frequency of the output wave. The output wave may be obtained in the manner explained in connection with Figure 3, lor alternatively, inductor d3 may be magnetically coupled to inductor 2 for obtaining a sinusoidal output wave therefrom.

Series-resonant circuit 40 may have the circuit constants of circuit 20 of Figure 3. Resistors 23 and 2t may have a resistance of 10,000 ohms and resistor 25 may have a resistance of 1,500 ohms. The frequency of the output wave obtained with this oscillator was 63 kc. The steady collector current was 2.6 ma. and the steady emitter current was .84 ma. The collector voltage Ec was -48 volts and the b-ase voltage was -185 volts. The emitter voltage was approximately the same as the ibase voltage.

It is also feasible to combine the conditions 'of cases B and C. Such an oscillator has been illustrated in Figure 6. Series-resonant circuit @l5 consisting of capacitor it and inductor 41 is connected between emitter electrode i3 and collector electrode M. The oscillator of Figure 6 otherwise is essentially identical with the oscillators of Figures 3 and 5. The resistance of base resistor 23 should be high.

A sinusoidal output wave `may be obtained from output terminals 32 connected effectively across collector resistor 24. Alternatively, an output wave may be obtained from output terminals 50 connected effectively across emitter resistor 26 through blocking capacitor 5 i It is furthermore feasible to derive balanced sinusoidal output waves across inductor lll. These output waves may be obtained from output terminals 52 or 53 which are balanced with respect to grounded terminal 54 and connected to opposite terminals of inductor Il through blocking capacitors 55 and 56, respectively.

In the oscillator of Figure 6, resistors 23, 24 and 25 may, for example, each have a resistance of 10,000 ohms. Series-resonant circuit l5 may have the same circuit constants as does circuit 20 of Figure 3. In this case the frequency of the output wave was 69 ko. The steady collector current was 1.9 ma. and the steady emitter current was .8 ma. The collector voltage E@ was 34 volts, the base voltage was 12.6 volts and the emitter voltage 13.2 volts.

Figure '7 illustrates a triggered yoscillator in accordance with the invention. The oscillator of Figure 7 is substantially identical with that of Figure 5, that is, series resonant circuit 40 is provided between collector electrode I4 and ground. However, the voltage of Ibattery il and the resistance of resistor 2t are chosen in such a manner that the oscillator is normally quiescent. For a better understanding of the operation of the oscillator of Figure 7, reference is made to Figure 8. Figure 8 illustrates the resistance R which appears looking into base electrode I5 as illustrated in Figure 1. The resistance R is a function of the emitter bias voltage Ee. Thus, between the zero line and dotted line E0 of Figure 8 the resistance R is negative. This is the region where the fissi-.item11.escalate Togtlie lrii ef thematic? and to ansieht of dotted line .0.. the resistere@ ai# were;

Let it now.y be assumed that in, tlue-4 circuit of Eligure'! a negativebias voltageEl. corresponding tov dotted line 5i of Eigule 8 is impressedbetween e' itt'erl electrode.V I3 and base electrode l5. This l normally render. the, oscillator quiescent. In cierto cause the oscillator tov oscillate thebias voltage E@ must be increased in a.. positive direc.- tion so that it will be somewhere, in, the. region .limited byV thezero line and dotted line.

To this` end, a positive trigger pulse maybe vimpressed oli/input terminals. 63. connectedhr3.- tween ground. and emitterelectrode i3v through coupling capacitor 6.1i; If'trg'genpul'ses' e; are of sufficient amplitude, the oscillator willfdevelop a'burstf of ysinusoidal waves.fortheY duratiorr'of the, triggerpulse, Instead. of impressing a psi'lpulse 52 on emitter electrode L3 itfis feasible' to impress a negative trigger pulse 65. on eitherbase electrode i5 cron. collector electrode ifi, To this en rl a negative triage-pulse t5l may be impressed through input', terminals $6 and coupling capacitori between base"electrodey l5 and ground., that is, lacross base resistor 23. Alternatively, a negativel trigger pulse. 'lrnaybe pressed through input terminals 3. and. coupling capacitor 215i between collector electrode le, and ground, thatis, eiiectively across collector resistor 2.4. It.. will ber obvious that areduction. of. the basevoltage. is equivalentfto an increase of. the emitter voitage. Similarly, a decrease. ofr the collectorvoltage will. cause a. larger currentflow through. base resistor -so'that the base voltage D decreases, thereby to increase theemittervoltage with respect to that of'basel electrode IE.

Itis furthermore feasible to biasl emitter elec.- trodo i3. positively with respectto base electrode i5 corresponding to dotted line 'ilof Figure 8. The positive bias mustbe suici'entlyhigh sov that the, oscilla-tor is`norinaliy quiescent, that is, the potential must aboveA that indicated by dotted. line Si In this clase, the oscillator o fFiguro. r1 maybe triggered by a negative pulse im; .tossed through terminals $3, on emitter electrode orby. a positive trigger pulse whichmay beim,- essel on either terminals E6 or 68r thereby to nder either base electrode l5 orcollector elec.-

de ifi more positive. The trigger pulses should e of sufficient amplitude toY render the oscillator oscillating, that is, to bring the'einitter biasvolt-yage wit-hin. the region limited by the zero Vline and dotted, line di?. It is to be understood that the cs ciilators of ir'igures and 6 maybe triggered. in theV same manner as shown inA connection with Figure.v 7.

Furthermore, instead ot triggering the oscillator ofY Figure 7 with a triggerpulse the emitter bias voltage. Ee may also lbe varied by varying the resistance of resistor emitter 26. This may be done 'eitherv mechanically or electronically-by replacing variable resistor with asuitable vacuum. tube or transistor device having a controllable resistance. Thus, byvarying the resistance of resistor 255 through a sufficiently large range, a normally quiescent oscillator may be made to `0s cillate, On the other hand, if the device is biased tooscillate, the resistance of resistor 2K5-maybe varied within the regionv limited bythe zero line by dotted line t0 of Figure 8. In that case, the Afrequency of the sinusoidal output wavemay beirequency modulated as will bel evident from an inspection of Figure 4. Alternatively, collector resistor.r 'Eifmayl be varied within the, oscillating wenn@ traquer@ modulate @s i0. vars the ireauency of the output wave.

It shouldfurther be pointed out that frequency modulation may easily be. accomplished by inserting a modulating voltage in series with resistor 2S or with resistor 2liproviding that the semiconductor device is operating in the region o f osx*- cillation. This should be clearly evident from the curves of Figure fi.

Thel oscillator of Figure 9 is provided withtwo tuned circuits'l rIhus., series-resonualnt1v circuitl 2j] may be provided between emitter electrode 1 3vr ground in the manner illustrated inV Figure. 3. Furthermore, parallel-resonant circuit 'i2 consisting oi capacitor 73 and. ildutflf u mty 'bef c9311' nested between .base electrode i5 andground. I ,t lies.. already been pointed out that such. e .r2-erelidresonant circuit connectedbetween base electrode i5 and ground has been disclosed and claimed in applicants copenling applicationI above IQerred to, Resonant circuits it, and 'l2 may either be made to resonate at the same frequency 03;.. one circuit may be tuned to a harmonic of the other circuit. In the latter case, the circuitof- Eigure may be used as a harmonic generatorA and agoutput wave at the harIrwnic frequency may be derived from the resonantcircuit tuned totheharinonicV frequency. Preferably, however, both circuits and 'i2 are tuned to thesaine frequency.

The oscillator of Figure l0r includes, three resonant-,circuits 2Q, i8 and 72. Series-.resonant cir cuit 2,9- is connected between emitter electrode L3 and ground while series-resonant circuit.l 4.8 is connected between collector. electrode le. and ground. Finally, parallel-resonantI circuit 12h, is connected between baseelectrode i5, and. ground. The three resonantV circuits 2.5.1, dil. and. 'i2 may either be tuned to thesameffrequency or onemay tuned to a harmonic of the frequency towhich the other two circuits are tuned. In the latter case, a harmonic generatory is provided andv an output wave at the harmonic frequency may be derived from that circuit which is tuned tofthe harmonic. frequency. v

There has thus been disclosed a noveltwoterminal sine wave oscillator incorporating a semi-conductor device. The. sine wave oscillator can be arranged to be normally. oscillating orfit may be biased to be normally quiescent in which case.. itv may be triggered by the application of trigger pulses` or by other means. The` Vfre,- quency of` the output Wave may be variedA by varying oneof the voltagesv appliedl to its electrodes. Finally, the frequency of the output wave may. be stabilized either by maintaining the supply voltages constant or by deriving them from the same source of potential.

What is claimed is:

1. A sine wave oscillator comprising a semiconducting body, a base electrode, an emitter electrode and a collector electrode contacting said body, means for applying a reverseV bias between said collector and base electrodes and for applying a predetermined bias between said emitter and base electrodes, an impedance element connected between said base electrode and apoint of substantially iixed potential, a resistor connected between said emitter electrode and a point of substantially fixed potential, a seriesresonant circuit connected directly. across said resistor, and means for derivinga sinusoidal outputwave across.l the inductanceelement ot-said circuit.

2 A sine wave oscillator comprising. a semicgonductingl body, a.. base,.- electrocle, an,l emitter electrode and a collector electrode in contact with said body, means for applying a reverse biasing potential between said collector and base electrodes and for applying a forward biasing potential between said emitter and base electrodes, an impedance element connected between said base electrode and a point of substantially xed potential, a resistor connected between said collector electrode and a point of substantially iixed potential, and a series-resonant circuit connected in shunt with said resistor.

3. A sine wave oscillator comprising a semiconducting body, a base electrode in contact with said body, an emitter electrode and a collector electrode in rectifying contact with said body. means for applying a reverse biasing potential between said collector and base electrodes and for applying a forward biasing potential between said emitter and base electrodes, an impedance element connected between said base electrode and a point of substantially xed potential, and a pair of series-resonant circuits, each being connected between one of said rectifying electrodes and a point of substantially xed potential.

4. A sine wave oscillator comprising a semiconducting body, a base electrode, an emitter electrode and a collector electrode in contact with said body, means for applying a reverse biasing potential between said collector and base electrodes and for applying a predetermined biasing potential between said emitter and base electrodes, a parallel-resonant circuit connected between said base electrode and a point of substantially fixed potential, and a series-resonant circuit connected in circuit with said emitter electrode.

5. A sine wave oscillator comprising a semiconducting body, a base electrode in contact with said body, an emitter electrode and a collector electrode in rectifying contact with said body, means for applying a reverse biasing potential between said collector and base electrodes and for applying a forward biasing potential between said emitter and base electrodes, a parallel resonant circuit connected between said base electrode and a point of substantially xed potential, a pair of resistors connected individually between each of said rectifying electrodes and a point of substantially lixed potential, and a pair of series-resonant circuits, each being connected I U eiectively across one of said resistors.

6. A triggered oscillator comprising a semi-conducting body, a base electrode in contact with said body, an emitter electrode and a collector electrode, each being in rectifying contact with said body, means for applying such biasing potentials to said electrodes that said oscillator will normally not oscillate, an impedance element connected between said base electrode and a point of xed potential, a series-resonant circuit connected in circuit with one of said rectifying electrodes, and means for varying the potential between two of said electrodes in such a manner as to cause said oscillator to oscillate.

'7. A triggered oscillator comprising a semiconducting body, a base electrode in contact with said body, an emitter electrode and a collector electrode, each being in rectifying contact with said body, means for applying a reverse biasing potential between said collector and base electrodes and for applying a predetermined biasing potential between said emitter and base elwtrodes so that said oscillator will normally not oscillate, saidj, means for applying including a source of potential and a resistor connected serially betweena point of iixed potential and said emitter electrode, an impedance element connected between said base electrode and said point of iixed potential, a series-resonant circuit connected to one of said rectifying electrodes, and means for varying the resistance of said resistor so as to cause said oscillator to oscillate.

8. A triggered oscillator comprising a semiconducting body, a base electrode in contact with said body, an emitter electrode and a collector electrode, each being in rectifying contact with said body, means for applying a reverse biasing potential between said collector and base electrodes and-for applying a predetermined biasing potential between said emitter and base electrodes so that said oscillator will normally not oscillate, an impedance element connected between said base electrode and a point of xed potential, afgseries-resonant circuit connected in circuit witlf 1fone of said rectifying electrodes, and means forapplying trigger pulses between one of said electrodes and said point of xed potential, said trigger pulses having such a polarity as to cause said'oscillator to oscillate substantially for the duratign' of each trigger pulse.

9. A triggered oscillator comprising a semiconducting body, a base electrode in Contact with said body,VIV an emitter electrode and a collector eiectrodefeach being in rectifying contact with said bodyiimeans for applying a reverse biasing potential between said collector and base electrodes and.r for applying a predetermined biasing potential between said emitter and base electrodes so that said oscillator will normally not oscillate, "al resistor connected between said base electrodl and a point of xed potential, a seriesresonarlfll ircuit connected in circuit with one of said re l ying electrodes, and means for applying trigger pulses between one of said electrodes and said point of fixed potential, said trigger pulses havingfsuch a polarity as to cause the resistance lookingjinto said base electrode to become negative, whereby said oscillator is caused to oscillate substantially for the duration of each trigger pulse.

10. An oscillator comprising a semi-conducting body, a base electrode in contact with said body, an emitter electrodev and a collector electrode, each having a small-area contact with said body. means for applying a reverse biasing potential between said collector and base electrodes and for applying a predetermined biasing potential between'f'said emitter and base electrodes, an impedance element connected between said base electrode and a point of ilxed potential, a seriesresonant circuit connected in circuit with one of said `'rectifying electrodes, an output connection coupled to one of said electrodes for deriving a sinusoidal output wave, and means for varying one f said biasing potentials, whereby the frequency of said output wave is varied.

References Cited in the lle of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,469,569 Ohl May 10, 1949 2,476,323 Rack July 19, 1949 

